Yusuke Urameshi
Yusuke Urameshi '(浦飯 幽助, ''Urameshi Yūsuke) is the main protagonist of the manga & anime series YuYu Hakusho. His closest friends and greatest allies includeKuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and Keiko. Yusuke also makes friends in Shizuru Kuwabara, Yukina, Chu, Rinku, Toya, Jin,Suzuka, and Shishiwakamaru. His superiors includeGenkai (his mentor), Koenma and Botan (his boss until the end of the Sensui arc and guide/assistant, respectively), and Enki (the First Demon World leader after winning the first Demon World Tournament). His sparring partner and closest advisor in Demon World is Hokushin. He is also the de facto leader of Team Urameshi and briefly the king of Raizen's country before he abdicated the throne in favor of the Demon World Tournament. At the start of the series, Yusuke is a teenage delinquent. He later changes into an almost altruistic defender of the Human World, along with Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei. He even revolutionizes the Demon World by preventing a war between Yomi and Mukuro after Raizen's death and overturning the previous system of separate countries in Demon World by founding the Demon World Tournament in which the winner becomes the one ruler of the Demon World; in his speech following the preliminaries, he even suggested that the tournament be held every few years like a presidential election and Enki, the first tournament champion, liked that idea by saying he would be the ruler for only 3 years. He is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in the original Japanese and Justin Cook in the English dub (by FUNimation). He is called '''Eugene in the Filipino adaptation of the anime. A young Yusuke appears in a flashback during the Dark Tournament Saga, voiced by Aaron Dismuke. He is voiced by Jonathan Charles in the English dub of Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie and by Rik Nagel in Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report. Appearance Yusuke has black hair, usually slicked back with gel, with brown eyes. He has a peach to tan skin complexion and has a skinny but lean, muscular body. He wears a green jumpsuit with yellow buttons and black shoes (a substitute for the blue school uniform he should be wearing). At the Dark Tournament, he wears a red jacket (with yellow tinted cuffs and collar) over a white shirt, along with jeans and white shoes. When actually fighting, he switches to a yellow sleeveless shirt and blue pants, with black shoes, a black karate belt and blue-black wristbands. At the beginning of the Chapter Black Saga, he wears his red jacket look, replacing it with a dark green suit jacket. During the final saga, he returns to the complete red jacket look and when fighting in the tournament, dons a fully white-clad karate uniform, complete with a green sash around the waist and black shoes. He is also seen wearing a complete dark blue suit with grey pants, black shoes and a white undershirt when visiting Kuroko Sanada. When his demon blood is awakened, he has long black hair (white when possessed by Raizen) that is wild and demonic markings on his face, arms and chest. Personality Having a no-show for a father and with his mother always off somewhere else One of his most notable traits is his desire to fight, which becomes more noticeable as the series progresses. Yusuke has been noted on many occasions to be rather unintelligent, and, at times, just plain stupid. However, as his teacher Genkai later notes, he "can be a genius at fighting". Yusuke's desire to fight is more out of enjoyment of a good brawl, and surprisingly Yusuke doesn't like killing if he can avoid it.(getting drunk or partying), Yusuke has grown up in a very neglectful environment. He's short tempered, impulsive, and likes to intimidate those who are afraid of him. Underneath his bold, cocky attitude, he has a joking, and kind nature. Even though Yusuke is feared by most students and severely disliked by almost all of the teachers, he is generally misunderstood. Keiko Yukimura, one of his childhood friends (and later love interest), is one of the very few who knows Yusuke is actually very kind, and she sympathizes with his problems in life. Yusuke also becomes very protective of his friends, especially Keiko, Botan, Koenma, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei. Out of all the six mentioned, though, Younger Toguro notes that Yusuke is "the most protective" of Kuwabara, most likely because Yusuke knew him longer than Hiei and Kurama, and also because of the fraility of Kuwabara's human heritage. Synopsis Yusuke's Father mentioned spanking Yusuke in his childhood to teach him discipline. Yusuke is also shown in a flashback during the Dark Tournament Saga as a Kindergartner on his school's playground. He then asks a young Keiko, "Wanna be friends?" to which she says "Yes". They are later shown playing tag together and that is how they met and became friends. Spirit Detective Saga Yusuke's Revival Yusuke Urameshi is 14 years old at the start of YuYu Hakusho. He is the toughest student at Sarayashiki Junior High School and fights Kuwabara on a frequent basis. He is a stereotypical bad kid, with a bad attendance record and picks fights with other kids at school. In the manga, he is even revealed to be smoking, gambling and drinking. While skipping school and being berated by his mother, Yusuke loafs around the town. Yusuke entertains a child by making silly faces, but when the kid wanders into the street in front of an oncoming car, Yusuke shoves him out of the way. He is struck by the car, and killed. As a ghost, Yusuke is greeted by an atypical version of the Grim Reaper; a bubbly, cheerful young woman namedBotan. She informs Yusuke that no one in Spirit World had expected him to die, risking his life to save the little boy. The boy would've survived; Thus, Yusuke's interference was unneccesary and only resulted in the kid having a minor scratch. They have no place for him in the afterlife because of his abrupt death. The Spirit World is also amazed how Yusuke, known for his bad attitude, could save a boy, and for these reasons, he was given the chace to live again. Botan remarks that Yusuke can return to life, but he initially declines. Yusuke's mind changes after he attends his wake, where people he knows pay their condolences to his mother.Atsuko (Yusuke's mother) is extremely distraught & borderline catatonic about losing her son. Keiko Yukimura (his classmate) sobs uncontrollably, yelling Yusuke's name. Kuwabara appears, angry and upset that Yusuke died before they could finish their battles. When two of Yusuke's teachers belittle him at the wake, Mr. Takenaka, another teacher, berates them for insulting him. He pays his respects to Atsuko and sobs at Yusuke's passing; only then, Atsuko reacts, collapsing in tears at the mention of Yusuke. Lastly, the child whom Yusuke saved and his mother show up, and when the child asks if he can play again with Yusuke, his mother cries and hugs him. Understanding that he meant more to others than they let on, he decides to come back. Yusuke is given an egg by Koenma, acting lord of Spirit World (in place of his father, who often left to work in other places), and is told that it will hatch a Spirit Beast, which will help him get back to life. However, he must be a genuinely good person. If he is evil, the beast will devour him. While in the anime Yusuke only accomplishes two good deeds, he does a lot more in the manga due to the timeline of events being more stretched out in the manga. This includes helping a boy named Shouta get over his dog's death, helping a girl who had died get over her obsession with a boy (who didn't really care for her) so she can move on, and also being temporarily revived to keep his body fresh so it won't die out. The last deed inolves not allowing Keiko to know about this, though Kuwabara encounters him and Yusuke explains to him what is happening before he returns to being a ghost. Keiko, who had received dreams and messages from Yusuke's ghost telling her he would be returning to life, needed to take care of his body so that he would be able to return to it. However, a fire starts in Yusuke's home and his body runs the risk of being incinerated. Keiko runs into the fire to protect it, and is trapped in the fire. Yusuke gave up all the power gained from his good deeds after his death to have Koenma save her. Koenma used this to put out some of the flames and opened up a path for her to escape from the fire. Due to this incident, with Koenma directly in contact with Yusuke's soul, he figured that the wave cycle of Yusuke's power is extremely long and has to meet the right time to be resurrected or he would have to wait for another fifty-two years (fifty years in the Japanese version and English manga) before the next chance and decided to let Yusuke return to life earlier even though the fire incident should have delayed the process since his power gained from good deeds were used up (In the manga, Yusuke had to go through one more good deed to be eligible for this by possessing an old acquaintance named Matsuo Suekichi to help him gain the confidence to achieve his dream of becoming a boxer). The only way for Yusuke to be resurrected is by a kiss from someone who is very close to him until midnight. Yusuke could tell, by dream, to three people he knew in order to do this, but he only told Keiko and Kuwabara since his mother started drinking and would not go to bed. Kuwabara did not believe the dream, due to its homosexuality, and Keiko got delayed by her mother's illness. Botan possessed Keiko's mother to leave a message saying Yusuke was in a more dire state than she was. Keiko manages to kiss Yusuke in time, and Yusuke is returned to life. After returning, Yusuke is surprised to notice a demon inhabiting the body of a street punk. Botan shows up and tells Yusuke that his experience with death allowed him to do these things. He is to become Earth's Spirit Detective, and protect the human race from demons by solving cases involved with the apparitions. Artifact Recovery Arc Yusuke engages in many difficult trials in his first assignments as Spirit Detective. The first is to recover three stolen artifacts from Spirit World. Koenma trains him by teaching him how to fire his spirit energy, energy possessed by humans and spirits, as a weapon. This technique is called the Spirit Gun, and becomes the signature attack of Yusuke. Yusuke attempts to combat these three thieves: Goki, who stole a soul-stealing article called the Orb of Baast; Kurama, who stole a mirror called the Forlorn Hope; and Hiei, who stole the Sword of Shadows. Yusuke was able to defeat Goki the the aid of Botan (anime only) and his Spirit Gun. Kurama willingly turns over the Forlorn Hope, as he only wanted to use its power to save his mother's life. Kurama intended to sacrifice his life for the mirror to save hers, but Yusuke selflessly asked the mirror to take his so Kurama can enjoy his mother's life. The mirror granted Kurama's wish, taking half of each of their life force, but killing neither, and Yusuke took the mirror. Yusuke and Botan then went to fight Hiei, who kidnapped Keiko and tried to turn her into a demon by slashing her with the stolen sword. While Botan staved off the transformation, Yusuke fought the extremely-fast demon, and managed to defeat him by reflecting his Spirit Gun off of the Forlorn Hope, intentionally missing Hiei to strike it and causing the arrogant demon to believe Yusuke missed. They found the antidoite in the hilt of the sword to stop Keiko's transformation. After the ordeal, Yusuke turned over the three artifacts to Koenma. Rando Arc Powers and Abilities Super Human Stamina: Yusuke has shown feats of stamina and endurance beyond that of a human multiple times, and after his Mazoku rebirth he displayed an even higher level of stamina. His most notable is where he is shown running for 3-5 days straight at high speeds along side Hokushin and Touou, while the two monks are exhausted Yusuke is fine, he went to fight Raizen afterwards. Super Human/Enhanced Strengh: While not present at the start of the anime/manga, Yusuke is clearly stronger than all of his peers and most adults. At age 14, he was shown as strong enough to hurt Goki in his human form, later he is shown to be strong enough to create a sharp 'wind blade' by just using his full strengh in a punch. Super Speed: Yusuke has shown multiple instances of super speed. During the Artifact Retrivel arc his rage increased his speed to Hiei's level, and he was show to able to follow Hiei even in his Jagan/full demon form. Fighting StyleEdit Street Fighting (with influences from Spiritual Martial Arts) // Projectile Attacks: Yusuke enjoys a good brawl, and seems to prefer fighting with his fists, though he specializes in long range projectile techniques that destroy foes from a distance or many foes at once. Thus when he fights to defeat the opponent, for the sake of efficiency he will tend to strike from afar with his spiritual projectiles (when using Spirit Gun, his face rarely shows the satisfaction he has when fist-fighting), but will fight using his physical skills if he wants to enjoy a good battle. A tactic he sometimes employs is to fight with his fists at close range, and once the opponent leaps back to dodge an attack, Yusuke will shoot a Spirit Gun at them. Due to his relative weakness compared to demons, initially he defeated his enemies by outsmarting them (i.e. Goki) or by sheer luck (i.e. Rando ). In later battles, this is not emphasized as much, and tends to defeat his foes with his strength or a boost of power he gains from a dire situation or from rage. Unless he is in a dangerous situation, Yusuke is a very aggressive fighter and rarely thinks before making a move, even firing a Spirit Gun at Sensui and realizing too late it may harm Kuwabara. Due to his experience as a delinquent, Yusuke knows quite a few street-fighting techniques. He has a very hard head, which results in a very powerful headbutt, which is apparently stronger than Chu's who's own headbutt was known to have broken rocks. He also has a body blow rush technique called the Intestine Killer. Shura andYomi describe him as using "No cheap moves or any real form to his fighting at all." and "He fights simply to enjoy the true nature of it." Known Techniques/Moves *'Spirit-Gun' (霊丸, Reigan, Rei-Gun in the Viz translation): This is Yusuke's signature move. He concentrates his Spirit Energy into his right index finger and releases it as a projectile. After channeling his energy, he pulls the trigger in his mind when he wants to fire the "bullet." The Spirit-Gun blast can range in size from a small shot (at this point it was only twice as strong as his punch), to a full-sized cannon blast, to a near atomic-explosion, as demonstrated in the demon world tournament. Initially, Yusuke can only fire the spirit gun a limited number of times per day. At first, early in his commission as Spirit Detective, he can only use it once per day, but by the beginning of the Dark Tournament, after rigorous training under Genkai, Yusuke can use it four times per day. After this, the number of bullets did not increase, but the strength of the individual bullets did. Eventually he gains the ability to shoot the spirit gun with virtually unlimited ammo in the anime, as shown in his fight againstYomi. It was originally given to him by Spirit World to fight off demons as required during his cases, but later becomes his signature move. Yusuke can deliberately weaken his gun so that it merely stuns the opponent rather than kill them, as shown by its use on Kuwabara. :*'Spirit-Gun Mega '(超霊丸, Chō Reigan lit. Super Spirit Gun): In his battle against the Younger Toguro, Yusuke uses up all his remaining energy to summon a gigantic energy bullet. Though unnamed in both the anime and manga, it is called such in the games. :*'Demon-Gun' (妖丸, Yōgan): This is the demon energy version of the Spirit-Gun. After he is reborn as the Mazoku, Yusuke gains the ability to fire his demon energy from his index finger. It is a vastly powerful attack. Yusuke fires a concentrated crimson blast of powerful demon energy that inflicts greater damage than a normal Spirit Gun did prior to his transformation. By the end of the series Yusuke is able to fire both his spirit and demon gun with virtually unlimited ammo, so long as he has energy. It is unnamed in all versions. ::*'Demon Gun Mega '(超妖丸, Chō Yōgan lit. Super Demon Gun): An ultimate version of his Spirit Gun, where an intense concentration of energy is released to create a devastating energy attack capable of annihilating anything. He learns this upon receiving Raizen's power, and kills Shinobu Sensui with it while under Raizen's control. It is unnamed in the manga and anime, but called Demonic Spirit Gun in the card game. *'Spirit Shotgun' (ショットガン, Shottogan, Shotgun Blast in the Viz translation): Yusuke gathers spirit energy into his fist to form a large blast of spirit energy from it to shoot out in less powerful but many blasts. While the technique is not as powerful as the Spirit Gun, a few advantages it has is that the shots are widespread, which makes it highly effective against quick or invisible opponents or large numbers of weak enemies. Yusuke first used this technique against a group of thugs, who were controlled by the Demon World Insects. It may not be the same technique, but Yusuke used a punch with multiple spirit gun blasts (used on Yomi but had no effect probably because spirit shotgun has weaker bullets.) *'Spirit Punch' : Though primarily a long distance fighter, in close combat, Yusuke is able to infuse parts of his body with Spirit Energy in an effort to enhance his ability in physical combat, especially his punches, but he does the same to his feet in the Tournament Tactics video game. The coating of spirit energy around his hands also can serve as a barrier to defend against projectile attacks such as Suzaku's arrows. It is unnamed in both versions, but is called as such in the video game, and is called "Spirit Fist" in the card game. He is once seen using Spirit Energy to strengthen his foot as well. *'Spirit Gun Barrage' (霊丸連射, Reigan Rensha, translated as Spirit Gun Rapid-fire/Chain Shot ''or ''Spirit Gun Double, Rapidfire in the Viz translation): Yusuke shoots two Spirit Guns in rapidfire. This technique has more force than the combined power of two Spirit Guns due to the fact that the second bullet pushes the first bullet as well, giving it more offensive power, to the point it could pierce Chu's giant Demon Energy Ball (Chu comments that the force of a single Spirit Gun would have been consumed). This technique was only used against Chu in the finals of the first round of the Dark Tournament by using Yusuke's remaining Spirit Gun shots together. While not mentioned in the English anime, a side effect from using this advanced technique caused Yusuke to temporarily lose the ability to use his Spirit Gun prior to the match against the Dr. Ichigaki Team due to his inexperience at manipulating Spirit Energy. Later in the anime, Yusuke uses a variation of this when he tries to break though Yomi's Demon Energy Absorption Wall during the Demon World Tournament. *'Spirit Wave' (霊光弾, Reikōdan, translates as Spirit Light Bullet, Aura Blast in the Viz translation): Yusuke uses it to turn his entire body into a catalyst for his Spirit Energy. Instead of using his index finger to focus energy, Yusuke uses his entire body for this attack. This makes for extremely-powerful close-range attacks that negate the opponent's attack, but it's extremely difficult and dangerous to use. This was first seen being used against Jin in the Dark Tournament Saga. He tried using this against Sensui, in the original Japanese version, but was kicked out of range before he could do anything. It also has some healing properties, as he is able to heal from the wounds Kazuya inflicted when he shot at him, close range. Not to be confused with Genkai's Fighting Style, or Genkai's purification technique, which all share the same name in the English dub. *'Spirit Cuffs' (呪霊錠･修の行, Jū Rei Jō: Shu no Gyō, translated as Cursed Spirit Shackles: Path of Training, or Aura Locks and Aura Handcuffs in the VIZ manga): Genkai placed these on Yusuke in order to increase his spirit energy reserves, a bearer of these cuffs needs to actively cycle spirit energy throughout their entire body in order to simply move, let alone fight. It is released with Ante in original Japanese; released with the command''Avitus'' in the English dub or released with the command Ante Up in the VIZ Manga. *'During the Dark Tournament, Yusuke told Koenma he can create explosive bursts of Spirit Energy and focus them on a target, but never demonstrated this ability (Koenma describes this as the most basic of basics).Transformation': After his atavism, Yusuke temporarily transforms into this Raizen-inspired demon form whenever his emotions, most likely negative ones like anger, run high. Raizen took over Yusuke's body without Yusuke's will to do so, as Raizen believed he would've lost to Sensui otherwise. The full strength of this form is unknown, but it greatly increased his speed and strength to easily dominate against an opponent who had a slight advantage over him. Given Yusuke's statement about his strength and Sensui's being nowhere near what it was during his possession, it can be assumed it would be equal to Raizen's strength at that point. In the manga, Yusuke's hair color stays the same as normal while in the anime, it turns white to match Raizen's hair. Anime-Specific Techniques *'Sacred Energy' (聖光気, Sei Kō Ki, translated as Sacred Light Energy): During his fight against Yomi, Yusuke, remembering all of his friends supporting him, is able to mix his body's Demon Energy and Spirit Energy together allowing him to generate his own version of Sacred Energy, different from the version that was previously used by Sensui during the Chapter Black Saga. It's just as powerful, but hard to maintain for more than a few hours; however, that would turn out to be more than enough time for Yusuke's battle with Yomi. Koenma says it isn't Sacred Energy and thinking of his friends it can be referred to as a friendship energy of equal power. In the Japanese version, it is actually implied to be Yusuke's own version of Sacred Energy . Movie-Exclusive Techniques *'Shot Gun Double Barrel': Yusuke channels his shotgun attack into both of his fists, and releases his energy out both at the same time. This creates twice the spread. This attack is only used in the first movie and in the English version only as he refers to it as Shotgun in the Japanese version. *'Power Sphere Fusion' - During the events of the the second movie, using the Power Sphere as a catalyst, Yusuke, Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara connect their souls as one. First Yusuke shoots a giant Spirit Gun bullet, which then unpredictably whips back like Kurama's rose whip when dodged. Then the bullet directly strikes the opponent, as if Kuwabara was lunging with his Spirit Sword. Finally, the giant burst of Spirit Energy is engulfed by Hiei's Dragon, giving it much more destructive force. Trivia *Yusuke's first name means "ghost helper" and his last name is a word that is said by dead spirits. *The Yu from Yusuke and Rei from Reigun make Yurei, another Japanese word for ghost. *In Yoshihiro Togashi's second famous manga series, Hunter X Hunter, Yusuke makes a cameo appearance alongside Hiei and Kurama as action figures in the room of Milluki Zoldyck (69, volume 8). *He also makes a crossover appearance in the last panel of Togashi Yoshiro's Hunter X Hunter yon-koma comic of 2011, where he asked about New Years and is told he is in the wrong manga. *Although he is often overlooked, Yusuke is the youngest human to achieve S-Class energy levels. Even as a Mazoku he still will be the youngest to achieve this level of strength. *In the Korean dub, he is named "Jin-Jin" (진진). He is still called Yusuke in the manga translation and subbed anime. *He is called Eugene in the Filipino dub of the anime. *Yusuke's birthday falls some time between the second half of June and the start of July. This is supported by the fact that he left for Demon World on his birthday, and the fact that Kurama left a month after him, sometime between late July and early August to help Yomi's cause until the end of August. This also makes sense since the animal that manifests through his spirit energy (the phoenix) also rules the days between June 25 and July 24 of the Ancient Egyptian horoscope. *Keiko reveals he doesn't know how to whistle. *In the manga, after defeating Nekobaba, Yusuke references Virtua Fighter by assuming a pose resembling a win pose from that series. His appearance changes to resemble Virtua Fighter's blocky graphics as well. *Yusuke has several songs on the soundtrack. By himself: "All Right!", "Akatsuki no Chikai ~Rising Sun~", "Dead or Alive ~Toushin~", "FIRE", "Kokoro o Tsunaide", "TOUGH", and "Tsukanoma no Sunset". With Keiko Yukimura: "Omoide o Tsubasa ni Shite". With Kurama, Hiei, and Kazuma Kuwabara: "Bokutachi no Kisetsu", "Hikari no Naka de", and "Yasashisa wa Nemuranai". There are also remixes of "Unbalance na Kiss o Shite " and "Taiyou ga Mata Kagayaku Toki" with him singing. *Justin Kovalsky of Animerica said "Ever hear the folk song "Bad Leroy Brown," by Jim Croce? Well, Yusuke is like old Leroy, but 14 and Japanese." *In the Japanese magazine Animage Anime Grand Prix popularity poll, Yusuke was ranked as the thirteenth most popular anime character in 1993, the tenth in 1994, and the eighth in 1995. *In March 2010, Yusuke was ranked sixteenth best male anime character of the 1990's by the Japanese magazine Newtype. *Coincidentally the first name of the Yu Yu Hakusho music artist is Yusuke. *In the very first chapter of the manga Yusuke is shown smoking. *In the anime, a young Yusuke is shown in a flashback and is voiced by Aaron Dismuke who also voices Shuraand has voiced Alphonse Elric in the first anime of the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise. *Yusuke's Reiki is Blue and his Yoki is Red References #↑ Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1, Page 32 #↑ Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1 #↑ Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1, Page 31 #↑ Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1, Page 37 #↑ Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 17 and Anime Episode 5 Category:Anime Heroes Category:Manga Heroes Category:Humans Category:Male Heroes Category:Main Heroes Category:Fantasy Heroes Category:Yu Yu Hakusho Movie Category:Video Game Heroes Category:Schoolboys Category:Teenage Heroes Category:Deceased Heroes